Hello everyone! Take a look at what we will be working on next week!
Phonics/Language Arts:
Next week we will continue examining "bridge e" words. I tell the students
that the "e" at the end of the word is silent and makes the other vowel say
it's name. For example, "name"...the "e" is silent, it makes a "bridge" over
the "m" and tells the "a" to say it's name...not it's sound. We will also
continue to review prior taught vowel sounds (ee, i, e, a, u, o).
Social Studies/Science:
Our "Me On A Map" unit has been fantastic! Our mailbox continues to
overflow with postcards from all over the world. Next week we will use
Google Earth on the promethean board to show the states, and countries that
the postcards come from.
We will also enter student addresses into Google Earth to allow students to
see their houses from an aerial view.
Students will work with parents to create a paper mache model of the Earth as
well.
Math:
Next week in Math is an assessment week. Students will be pre-assesed on
their ability to produce sets for number words through 10, their ability to
make fair trades with combinations of pennies and nickels, and pennies and
dimes, and if they can identify a coin and it's value.
Writing:
We will continue to study the work of Angela Johnson. Specifically we will
emulate her usage of comeback lines. A comeback line is a phrase or small
set of words that is repeated several times throughout a story. The comeback
line holds the main idea of the story. The students will use a graphic
organizer to identify the many small moments that exist in Johnson's book "Do
Like Kyla", and the comeback line that threads all of the small moments
together.
The students have been finding the techniques that Angela Johnson uses in
several other books that we read in class (i.e. ellipses, comeback lines) and
are starting to incorporate them into their own writing. I am pleased that
they are conceptualizing writing as a craft that needs to be practiced and
learned from others as opposed to merely putting words on paper.
Blog:
Thanks for revisiting the blog pages with your child and allowing them to
post responses to each other. We have looked at it as a class a couple of
times this week, and they are so excited to see their name and comment pop up
on the screen. Ash has been blogging from Dubai as well,(he even sent us a
Youtube video of him running across the desert!) and I encourage the students
to use the blog as a mode of communication with him as well. My goals for
the blog are for students to begin to conceptualize it as a new form of
literacy, and to utilize it as a communication tool.
That's all for now!
-Kenny